Life in Paradise ain't what it's cracked up to be

[Paphluvr]

Partial quote

Originally Posted by voyager

The county mayor grew up as a child in a field hand level family on a plantation here on Big Island.
He is an ambitious person who has climbed to being the head of the island running it's government.
His benign grandfatherly air masks a ruthless power wielder.
In effect, he now sees himself as an overseer with all the privileges and prerogatives that go with the position.

He and his underlings [political appointments] have taken very high handed actions trying to impose their will on the people affected by this eruptive event, even when it has been at their expense.
They have been ignorant, incompetent, dispensed wrong and misleading information as well as outright lies in order to push their agendas onto those affected.
It is too complex to try explaining fully here.
.

Sounds a lot like Congress.

[Thyroyalgeek]

that's so on the point it's down to the nanometer.

[estación seca]

Lychee and longan have been available here in metro Phoenix for years, in the very few Asian markets. I saw red rambutan this year for the first time. All three fruits are sold by the pound in net bags as separate fruits. The quality has been outstanding, but they need to be eaten within 2-3 days of purchase.

Viable seeds of all three will sprout and can be grown as house plants. Lychee and rambutan will not survive outdoors here due to the high heat, and rambutan cannot handle the low humidity. But longan will grow and fruit here.

I have planted every seed of these for years. Years ago some of the lychee and longan would come up. Lately, none comes up. I also plant the seeds of fresh jakfruit sold here in the same markets. (This is an enormous fruit in the mulberry/fig/breadfruit family with juicy, sweet yellow flesh wrapped around hundreds of large seeds in a fruit with a spiky skin. It can be fruited in a 15 gallon pot.) All the jakfruit seed come up. I suspect all these tropical fruits are shipped in containers from Asia at just above freezing, at which temperatures they tolerate the voyage with good quality. Jakfruit plants don't mind in the least temperatures down almost to freezing, so their seeds seem not to be affected. But lychee, longan and rambutan seeds may not tolerate this cold storage. I have also noticed lots of mango seeds turn black and die when planted, suggesting to me they, too, have been shipped just above freezing.

I once just missed buying fresh, non-frozen durian fruit in the market. This is a cousin of jakfruit. I have not seen it fresh since. Frozen durian is available each year. I don't know whether its seeds tolerate the cold storage for shipping. It certainly would not grow outside here, but maybe in a pot.

Mike, I would think all three of lychee, longan and rambutan would love your climate. The shallow soil is probably the issue. They can't dry out for one second or they die. They have wide spreading, very shallow root systems. I also am sure jakfruit would grow for you.

There is a seed source in Hawaii for many tropical fruits. It is called fruitlovers.com. They do ship internationally. Realize a lot of these seeds are only available for a very short period of time during the year, and must be planted immediately, because they cannot dry out.

[voyager]

Speaking of tropical fruit.
Because of the eruption, I skipped Plant it Hawaii's sale last May.
I just received an email announcing their upcoming sale the weekend after next.
Gonna go with an open mind, might try something I've not thought about much so far.
I've watched them for rambutan for years.
They never seem to have any available.
Maybe this time?

I keep considering mango.
But, we're too wet here.
All I'd get is a shade tree out of it.

Plant it Hawaii

They are a wholesaler that supplies most of the retail outlets, including HD, on Big Island with grafted fruit trees.
Their trees are first rate.

[estación seca]

Originally Posted by voyager

Speaking of tropical fruit.
Because of the eruption, I skipped Plant it Hawaii's sale last May.
I just received an email announcing their upcoming sale the weekend after next.
Gonna go with an open mind, might try something I've not thought about much so far.
I've watched them for rambutan for years.
They never seem to have any available.
Maybe this time?

I keep considering mango.
But, we're too wet here.
All I'd get is a shade tree out of it.

Plant it Hawaii

They are a wholesaler that supplies most of the retail outlets, including HD, on Big Island with grafted fruit trees.
Their trees are first rate.

How'd it go?

Have you ever tasted a wax apple? Also known as jambu, Malay apple? There are a number of different kinds that are supposed to do well in some areas of Hawaii.

[voyager]

Talk is the cheapest commodity on the face of the Earth.
That include me.
I ended up skipping the tree sale again.
I skipped last spring's sale too.

Too many other things with much higher priorities right now.
Got no place to put new trees.
We do have an acre, but 2/3 to 3/4 is undeveloped jungle over rough lava rock with only about 250 years of soil built on it.
That ain't much covering the lava.
The soil is thin.
That's why I use a lot of cinders to build new soil with.

Got bananas crowding avocados and citrus cutting into the ability of all to bear fruit.
Going to have to thin the bananas or move them somewhere else.
Got a lot of bananas getting ready to ripen, both dwarf and tall Brazilian [Apple] bananas.
We are banana faces.
Soon the avos will be blooming.
We also eat a lot of avos.

Got the longan tree sprayed with a potassium chlorate solution just before Xmas.
It should be blooming by the end of Feb giving it its first fruiting in the coming season.

Been busy with working on the house and grounds:
replaced the back lanai's roof and degraded structural wood, graded the driveway getting ready to lay new cinders on it, spreading cinders to enlarge and level a new yard area to install a couple of new sheds on, getting ready to build slabs to put the sheds on, spreading more cinders to smooth out the lawn area to make mowing easier and to make more usable transitions from one area to another, and the list goes on.
The compulsion to get everything done that I want to get done should keep me alive for another hundred ... hundred and fifty years, or so.
Better than life insurance.

Orchids have been a very low priority lately.
although, I am watching them and noting what is going on with them, a lot of good, some bad.
Just had a large bloom of various Catts all over the yard.
A very nice surprise.

Oh yeah, your question:
Wax apple, Malay apple, jambu ...?
Not sure about them.
As far as I know ... no, haven't seen or heard of them.
Are they something like a mountain apple?
I have tried those, but wasn't overly impressed.
Not going to put a tree in for them.

Got four pineapple patches in various locations around the yard something on the order of 80 plants or so.
They are badly in need of being weeded, grass pulled from around them.
The plants are mostly 2 years old now.
Should get a large harvest of small fruit from them.
They'd do better if I weeded them and we got more sun.
Not much chance of either happening.

How's that for off topic?

[Dollythehun]

Cinders? Diameter? What this conjures up Midwest style is something you'd never mow over, or plant in.

[estación seca]

Maybe mountain apple. There are a lot of different kinds. Ever tried a mamey? People who don't like papayas often don't like mamey.

[voyager]

@dth
Don't forget, Big Island is little more than a group of volcanoes, 3 of which are considered to be active.
Volcanic cinders are little more than porous lava formed as it cools after being ejected into the air from lava fountains.

We live over a mile from Fissure 8 where most of the latest eruption took place.
I've picked up several large chunks of tephra [a solidified volcanic glass foam] blown into the air that landed in our yard.
The cinders are a larger sized volcanic ash.
It comes in red and black colors.

I use the black as a base to build soil from and the red to fill low areas, cover driving and parking areas and to make a base to build on.
balance of load of red cinders


balance of load of black cinders


overflow parking and turnaround for mail, UPS, and FedEx drivers.


Our driveway [don't throw your neck out looking at it]


Banana bunch harvested yesterday


Black cinders being used to smooth out lawn surface

[voyager]

Originally Posted by estación seca

Maybe mountain apple. There are a lot of different kinds. Ever tried a mamey? People who don't like papayas often don't like mamey.

We eat a lot of papaya, avos, and bananas.
I buy 15# of cranberries most years, freeze them and have cranberry/blueberry pancakes through most of the year.
I've been ordering them from Connecticut.
Started doing that while still in Alaska.
But, I'm going to try another source next year.

I've tried a lot of different types of tropical fruit since coming here.
But, I find most to not be worth the effort.
not sure if I've tried mameys or not.
Star fruit are just too tasteless for the effort.

About the only one we really like but can't grow here are Mangoes.
One I'd like to plant a tree for is Mangosteen.
The only problem is they take too many years to begin to bear fruit.

We do have Mulberry and Jaboticaba trees, a Valencia juice orange, a Tahitian lime, 2 lemons: Meyer and Eureka, 4 tangerines: 2x Honey, a Satsuma and a Dancy, 3 avocados: Sharwil, Ota and Lamb-Hass.

I'm plotting on some warm tolerant blueberries in the not too distant future.
I miss my blueberries and huckleberries.
They have been a life long staple for me.
Frozen store-boughts just don't meet the need.

EDIT:
Oh and don't forget, 2x papaya trees, ~ 15 to 20 tall Brazilian and ~ 20 to 30 dwarf Brazilian banana trees.
We got lots of Apple bananas coming up.